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How to Add Subtitles in Elmedia Player (With Troubleshooting Tips)

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Jan 13, 2025
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Elmedia Player supports embedded subtitles and external subtitle files in all languages available.

It supports numerous subtitle formats, including .ass, .ssa, .idx, .jss, .rt, .smi, .smil, .srt, .sub, .txt, .utf, .vtt, .webvtt, letting you add subtitles to MKV/MP4. The app also works with many additional video files, such as MKV, MP4, AVI, DivX, WMV, etc.

How to Enable Embedded Subtitles in Elmedia Player

Here are the steps for watching your movie or any other video in MKV, MP4, or any other supported file type, with the embedded subtitles in the Elmedia Player:

  1. Open the app.
  2. Run the video. When you open the file, the video should play with subtitles. Elmedia Player can recognize and identify the encoding instantly (read more details below). If the embedded subtitles aren’t recognized, then go to Preferences > Subtitles > tick the box “Automatically enable subtitles if available”. Then, rerun the video.

How to Add External Subtitle File to Video in Elmedia Player

  1. Open the app.
  2. Ensure that you have downloaded the media file along with a subtitle file and put them in the same folder. 
  3. Run the video. When you open the file, the video should play with subtitles.
  4. If there are multiple subtitle files the video may display .srt files in the wrong language. Just hit the “S” button to cycle through the languages.


*If there is no subtitle file downloaded along with your movie/video file, then jump to the “How to Search Subtitles Online in Elmedia Player” Section below to discover the actions you need to take to get the External Subtitle File.

Elmedia Player Detects the Subtitles Encoding Automatically

Elmedia Player is able to automatically identify the subtitle encoding. If it cannot accurately do so, the app will ask you to select the encoding manually.

If that’s the case, you need to choose the suitable encoding from the drop-down list and click the “OK” button. If an incorrect encoding has been selected, you will see wrong symbols on the screen or the subtitles won’t be displayed at all.

Checking the “Don’t ask me again” box will stop the message from reappearing in the future. If the subtitle encoding cannot be identified automatically, Elmedia will apply the encoding that has been selected in the Subtitles settings.

Unknown Subtitle File Encoding

You should choose the proper item from the drop-down list of encodings and click the OK button. In case the encoding is chosen incorrectly, you won’t see the subtitles at all or there will be wrong symbols.

If you check the box Don’t ask me again, the message won’t be displayed to you anymore. In case the encoding of subtitles can’t be determined automatically, Elmedia will use the encoding selected in the Subtitles settings.

Subtitles Encoding

How to Search Subtitles Online in Elmedia Player

To search for movie subtitles, use Elmedia’s capability to search on OpenSubtitles.com. Open the app, then right-click on the player window and choose Subtitles > Search on OpenSubtitles.com. Once the search concludes, this menu option will read Subtitles > Download from OpenSubtitles.com. If the site has found more than one available subtitle track, you can select your preferred one.

Picking subtitles from the list will download them straight away and display them on your screen along with the video. Elmedia’s PRO version also allows you to save the selected subtitles by going to Subtitles > Save As). 

You can also use OpenSubtitles.com with Elmedia Player through your registered account. To log in, go to Preferences -> Subtitles -> Online Search -> Login to OpenSubtitles.com. Type in your OpenSubtitles username and password fields and press “OK”.

NOTE:  It’s best to register with OpenSubtitles.com and enter your login details to Elmedia Player in order to search for subtitles without any limitations. The site limits unregistered users to 200 subtitle downloads per IP every 24 hours. Logging into your OpenSubtitles account gives you wider access depending on your user rank on the website. Please, note that if you have an account on OpenSubtitles.org, you can import it into OpenSubtitles.com since the two sites are related. To do so, visit OpenSubtitles.com and go to “Login” in the top right > “Import from OpenSubtitles.org”.
Search on OpenSubtitles.org
Download from OpenSubtitles.org

Once you select subtitles from the list, they will be downloaded and immediately displayed. Any selected subtitles can be saved (Subtitles – Save As) in the PRO version. 

Click Subtitles and then Save As

You can log in to your OpenSubtitles.com account with Elmedia Player. For this go to Preferences -> Subtitles -> Online Search -> Login to OpenSubtitles.com. Fill out the username and password fields and press OK.

Log in to your OpenSubtitles.org account
NOTE:  We recommend you register with OpenSubtitles.com and submit your login details to Elmedia Player. By this, you enable the app to search for subtitles without limits. Unregistered users can download 200 times per IP within 24 hours from the site. If you want to get more, log in with your OpenSubtitles account or sign in once again.

Changing the Type of the Online Subtitle Search

Elmedia allows you to change the type of subtitle search. You can select one of the following:

    • Auto. In this mode, Elmedia looks for subtitles by hash. If no results are available, the search will be performed by the file name.
    • Name. Elmedia Player searches for subtitles by filename only. This search renders more results than the hash method but not all subtitles will likely fit your video..
    • Hash. Elmedia Player takes a hash key from the video and, along with the file size, uses that to perform a search on OpenSubtitles.com. This is an accurate method since it finds subtitles even if you change your video file name. However, the hash must be available in the OpenSubtitles.com database for this approach to work.
      With Elmedia PRO, the automatic subtitle search can be performed as soon as you open a video track. To enable this, go to Preferences > Subtitles. In addition, you can select 3 preferred subtitle languages. This way, Elmedia Player will search for the subtitles in these preselected languages.


If the search doesn’t deliver results, no subtitles will be displayed. Instead, the “Download from OpenSubtitles.com” menu item will say “Nothing found”.

Subtitles Preferences

What To Do If You Can’t Add Subtitles in Elmedia Player - Troubleshooting

If subtitles are not loaded automatically:

  1. Ensure your subtitles file is located in the same directory as the video. If you’ve just placed the file there, restart playback.
  2. Try choosing a different encoding or changing the Autoload subtitles option in Preferences. Again, restart the playback for the changes to occur.
  3. Open the subtitles file manually by using either of these methods:

    ● go to Subtitles → Subtitles Track → Add from File… or File → Open… in the main menu;
    ● go to Subtitles → Add from File… from the context menu;
    ● drag and drop the subtitles file onto Elmedia’s window.

If subtitles are displayed incorrectly:

Firstly, check whether the proper subtitles encoding has been selected, or you may see no subtitles at all or see wrong symbols.

Secondly, make sure a suitable font has been set. Arial is the default font used as it works well for the majority of subtitles, including Chinese.

However, sometimes even with Arial certain subtitles may be displayed incorrectly. Choose another font in Preferences and restart the playback.

NOTE:  In the Elmedia Player versions available on the Mac App Store, subtitles may not be loaded automatically. This is due to the app’s restricted access to the file system. To fix this, you should either:
  • specify the path to your videos by going to Preferences → General → Movie folder option;
  • drag and drop the videos directory onto Elmedia Player’s window or its icon in the Dock.